A few months ago, Megan (who I met through blogging, but Megan rarely blogs) posted a link to The Color Run on my Facebook wall.  I was pretty sure that she was giving me a strong suggestion that she wanted me to sign up.  Megan lives in the Santa Barbara area, which meant that she would have to make the trek down here to Orange County to do the race with me.  I signed up for the race that day, and pretty much forgot about it until a week or so before the race.

I realized that I had overbooked my weekend of The Color Run, and that I would be doing the race with only a little bit of sleep.  I was busy the Friday and Saturday before the race with The Ragnar Relay SoCal.  I was helping my friends, Team Sparkle, by doing photography and social media for them.  So on my way home from Ragnar, I had to stop by Target to get myself a white tank top for The Color Run.  Luckily, we have a Target near us that is open till 11pm.

Megan got to my house at 7am, and we got organized and left for the race.  I grabbed some towels, baby wipes, and a trash bag.  I’ve done two mud runs and I remember how dirty I was after the runs.  I brought the towels to sit on in my car, the baby wipes to clean off with, and the trash bag to throw some of our paint covered clothes in.

After parking our car, and wandering a bit, we headed to the starting line. It was very “white”, as we were advised to wear white shirts.

Megan and I took a self-portrait pre-race.

And I had to take a portrait of our Team Sparkle Skirts with our knee highs from Target.

After taking these pictures, I placed my iPhone inside a plastic bag.  I did not want it to get damaged with the “color” during the race.  Right before taking off, we ran into Danica and Shea.  We all pushed up to the front of the group, so we were able to be in the first wave of people. That was a huge deal, because we didn’t have to wait forever to start the race.  We had some laughs before the race as we deemed it “The Hipster Race”.  I said, all we need is fedoras and fake mustaches.  Danica then pointed to a group of people wearing fedoras.

Photo via Danica

Danica was really good at taking pictures as we ran through each other station.  I took some pictures but they were super blurry.  We had another runner take this group picture of Megan, me, Danica, and Shea after we had gone through three color stations (yellow, green, and purple).  After the first station, yellow, we learned how to get proper coverage of color.  Each station we alternated, left-right-left-right.  Then we going through the station, we would do a 360-turn to get color everywhere.  Otherwise you would only get color on one side. And everyone else in our group was smart to wear sunglasses.  I was a total fail and forgot mine at home.

Since, we were in the first wave of runners, there wasn’t a ton of people done yet.  I took a photo of the finish line and everyone post-race.  This was born the “Color Drop” when you got pretty much submerged in color.

And I took this photo after the “Color Drop”. When you pick-up your race packet, you get a packet of color to bring to the race with you. Megan and I both got green packets. I placed it inside my SPIbelt during the race.  They were doing announcements every fifteen minutes or so with count down.  When they said it was time, everyone opened their packets and let the color go in the air.  You are probably wondering what the color actually is?  The color is food grade cornstarch per The Color Run’s website.

I also took a video of a Color Drop with my iPhone (it is a bit pixelated):

And some after photos of Megan and I.

Me Post-Race

Megan Post-Race

Megan and I together.
Photo via Danica.

After the race and color drop, I may have spotted a very large Slurpee truck. I heart Slurpees so I made Megan wait in line. The Slurpees were tiny, but also tasty.

A portrait of Megan and I while waiting for Slurpees.

I took this hilarious of photo of Shea and Danica with their iPhones.

Danica sent me this super cute picture of me and her.
Photo via Danica.

My Team Sparkle Skirt, Knee High Socks, and Shoes post-run, along with Megan’s.

And you are probably wondering if we got clean? Megan and I both got “blown off” by this guy. It really got rid of a ton of powder that was just sitting on us. After we got back to the car, we bathed in baby wipes. The wipes took a ton of the color off from our faces, legs, and arms. When I got home, I stripped down in my garage. I had color everywhere, even on my feet, which had been covered with socks and shoes. I used soap and baby oil to get most of the color off. I had stains for a few days in the crooks of my arms, and my armpits.

Overall it was a very fun race.  I went in expected nothing, as it was not a timed race.  It was fun seeing everyone dressed up in costumes, tutus, and of course our Team Sparkle Skirts.  I also loved doing it with Megan, Danica, and Shea.  It was FABULOUS for picture taking also!!!  If you get the chance and there is a color run in your area, sign-up! You don’t have to be a runner to do it. I saw several people walking it. Plus, the races are selling out fast, so don’t hesistate!